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Safety Andre Cisco picked off Tyrod Taylor in the end zone late in practice.
Taylor was filling in for starting QB Justin Fields, who is day-to-day with a toe injury.
However, while Cisco deserves credit for this, Taylor doesn’t deserve a lot of criticism for this.
This was one of those “this is what camp is for” picks.
He was experimenting with his ball placement with a receiver (sorry I forgot to write down the receiver’s number and there are no replays available for the media).
Veteran quarterbacks don’t worry about misguided practice stats, and focus on getting ready for the season, and experimenting with ball placement in camp is something you do, interceptions be damned . . .
Jermaine Johnson has been cleared to return, and the Jets need him.
Obviously, they don’t need him immediately, with the regular season over a month away, but from a big-picture perspective, they need him to man the end position opposite Will McDonald.
So far, there have been some players manning the end position opposite McDonald, who are probably not starters, and in fact bubble players, like Eric Watts and Michael Clemons, who both need to lower their pad levels.
You could make an argument that the end opposite McDonald in practice, with Johnson out, should be Rashad Weaver, a former fourth-round pick of Tennessee, now entering his sixth seasons.
The bottom line is this position, after McDonald and Johnson, has a lot of question marks, and they need a couple of guys to step up this summer, and make it clear they are the best options for the third and fourth end spots. With how much teams rotate on the defensive line, the Jets need a pair of solid ends to spell McDonald and Johnson.
Fifth-round rookie Tyler Baron should not be anointed one of those spots. He needs to earn it.
In today’s practice, there was a run-pass option play to the left, and Baron got sucked inside, and the QB ran for a nice gain off left tackle.
The player has a lot of natural ability, but has some work to do . . .
Early in practice, there was a long completion, on a deep out, from Taylor to Jeremy Ruckert.
On every play in a football practice, there is a positive and a negative – because obviously it’s the same team on offense and defense going at each other.
Somebody blew a coverage on this play.
Ruckert was wide open.
Without being privy to the playbook, it’s often hard to discern who was at fault, but a player that Ruckert seemed to get behind was linebacker Jamin Davis.
Once again, I can’t prove with 100 percent certainty that Davis was at fault here, but while some consider him a candidate for the third starting linebacker spot next to Quincy Williams and Jamien Sherwood, not sure about that one.
Davis, who was picked 19th overall in the 2021 draft by the Washington Commanders, has a great size-speed ratio, but talking to somebody around the Commanders, the player’s instincts are so-so.
When he was coming out of Kentucky in 2021, NFL Network draft analyst Lance Zierlein wrote about him: “Needs to diagnose and respond just a shade quicker as a pro.”
And that issue plagued him with the Commanders.
So his best role with the Jets is probably not as a starting linebacker, but as a backup LB and core special teams player.
As an NFL starting linebacker, you need to trigger fast and not be a see-and-go reactor . . .
Jets backup nose tackle Phidarian Mathis is an intriguing player. Also, a high pick of Washington (2022 second round) like Davis, he is a massive, powerful Nick Saban-trained Alabama product who takes up a lot of space.
But he needs to be more consistent, and you saw that on display in a one-on-one line drill – offensive lineman vs. defensive lineman. First he knocked massive guard Marquis Hayes to the ground with a bull rush, but then on his next rep, he jumped offsides and was pulled for another defensive tackle for the next rep in that drill.
If you could even out his play, the Jets could have something here, and we know they are on the lookout for a massive nose tackle to line up next to Quinnen Williams.
July 25, 2025
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